An estimated two million people, mostly civilians, died in Sudan and four million were displaced between 1985 and 2005 as the result of civil war. Primary responsibility for this devastation belonged to the Sudanese government, a military regime based in the north. The principal victims included the Dinka and Nuer peoples in southern Sudan and the Nuba of central Sudan. In 2000, the Museum issued a warning for Sudan based on the following government actions:
A divide-to-destroy strategy of pitting ethnic groups against each other, with enormous loss of civilian life
The use of mass starvation as a weapon of destruction
Toleration of the enslavement of women and children by government-allied militias
The incessant bombing of hospitals, clinics, schools, and other civilian and humanitarian targets
Disruption and destabilization of the communities of those who flee the war zones to other parts of Sudan
Widespread persecution on account of race, ethnicity, and religion
Taken individually, each of these actions was a disaster for the victims. Taken together, they threatened the physical destruction of entire groups. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement was signed by the government and Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement on January 9, 2005. It ended the war and established the parameters for a new unified government, but the Committee maintains Sudan on its watch list to monitor the implementation of the agreement. In 2004, the Committee issued a Genocide Emergency for Sudan’s western region of Darfur, where genocide continues today.
Museum
